Ira R. Mitzner

Ira R. Mitzner, who died in 2013 at age 66, was a litigator who helped to develop multiemployer plan law under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). He was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2004.

Ira graduated from Brown University in Providence, RI, with a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 1969 and received his law degree in 1973 from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.

Ira rose to partner in Washington, DC with Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP and remained with the firm until his passing (firm later merged with Blank Rome LLP). In addition to ERISA cases, Ira maintained a general practice and worked on bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, employment, insurance bad faith, and insurance coverage cases.

Where several separate employers came together to sponsor a single employee benefit plan, the ERISA issues became even more complex. Ira’s pension practice and many of his written articles addressed the evolving legal landscape of multiemployer employee benefit plans, an area of ERISA involving new laws to address collectively-bargained private-sector plans sponsored by more than one employer. The Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 introduced more changes to ERISA, upping the challenge for attorneys, when guidance on new law is scarce, of navigating the new laws and advising clients. Uncertainty could even bring issues to litigation. Funding issues for multiemployer defined benefit plans led to Ira’s and other litigators’ doorsteps when plans were faced with delinquent payments by participating employers. Ira also addressed liability exposure of ERISA fiduciaries as well as withdrawal liability issues.

An active member of the pension community, Ira was the editor and principal contributor of the ERISA Litigation: A Basic Guide, published by the International Foundation of Employee Plans in 1993. He taught as an Adjunct Professor, at George Washington University, from 1994 to 1996. He also contributed to the profession through the American Bar Association (Member, Committee on Labor Arbitration and the Law of Collective Bargaining Agreements, Labor and Employment Law Section, 1982). One of his treasured activities was mentoring associates and paralegals who knew him to have a quiet determination and a tough, but caring, and insightful presence.

College Fellow Jim Singer recalled that Ira was passionate about the sport of boxing, which Ira credited with helping him to develop toughness, perseverance, and courage. Ira’s grandfather introduced him to boxing as a youngster, and Ira happily came back to it at age 50 for exercise, stress relief, and enjoyment for the last 16 years of his life. Ira’s family established the Ira Mitzner Collegiate Boxing Scholarship to honor Ira: https://www.collegeboxing.org/scholarships.

As a litigator, Ira was on the cutting edge of the developing new multiemployer plan laws. As a teacher and writer on important pension issues, Ira shared his expertise and helped to educate the next generation of lawyers. Tenacious and courageous, he was a talented, intelligent man, who was respected by many.

Photo Source: United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association https://www.collegeboxing.org/scholarships